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Lessons from PISA for Korea

The story of Korean education over the past 50 years is one of remarkable growth and achievement. Korea is one of the top performing countries in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey and among those with the highest proportion of young people who have completed upper secondary and tertiary education. Korea is continuously exploring ways to improve its education system and has dramatically increased government investment in education over the last decade. Nevertheless, further reforms are needed to spur and sustain improvements. Rapid globalisation and modernisation are also posing new and demanding challenges to equip young people of today and tomorrow with skills relevant to the 21st century.

The report Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for Korea aims at helping Korea to identify and address education policy challenges in an international perspective. To this end, it examines the Korean education system through the prism of PISA, considers recent policy developments and suggests specific policy options to foster improvements. The report also provides an in-depth analysis of the experience of other high-performing countries.

Shangai and Hong Kong-China: Learning to Learn

Less than three decades after the Cultural Revolution, when educated people, including teachers, were sent to rural areas to work in the field, parts of China, notably Shanghai, now rank among the best-performing countries and economies in PISA. This chapter looks at how the education systems in both Shanghai and Hong Kong-China have benefited from the realisation that economic growth depends on individuals who are adaptable, creative and independent thinkers. Education reforms in these two cities have focused on upgrading teaching standards and teacher education, introducing greater curricular choice for students, and giving local authorities more autonomy to decide the content of examinations.